ACMA seeks two minute call, megabyte unit prices

Sets potential collision course with industry.

Australia's communications watchdog has proposed that telcos disclose unit prices in advertisements for a two-minute phone call, text message and a megabyte of data, in order to help consumers compare plans.

The proposal is one of a number laid out by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in its final report on a public inquiry into customer service and complaints-handling by telcos.

The inquiry was sparked by consistently high complaints statistics reported by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.

However, the ACMA appeared to be setting itself on a collision course with parts of the industry, despite claims it had industry support to “standardise” price information.

They include a ban on the use of certain words in advertisements, a new telco watchdog to monitor performance and “plain English” summary of offer documents to be provided to consumers before they signed a service contract.

The TCP was revised by the telecommunications sector at the same time the ACMA conducted its public inquiry into customer service standards.

It will now need to undergo a further round of edits to incorporate the ACMA’s latest proposals and suggestions.

The ACMA has given the industry five months to re-draft the TCP, consult, finalise the text and hand it back to the watchdog for registration.

If the revised code doesn’t match the toughness of the ACMA’s proposals, the watchdog can knock the code back and create its own tougher “industry standard”.

The industry has until February 2012 to give the ACMA a code that meets the watchdog’s expectations, an ACMA spokesman said.

The spokesman said that once it had a registered TCP or ACMA-led standard, the authority would perform a cost-benefit analysis on what the changes might cost telcos.

The ACMA also warned telcos large and small that it would target them for compliance with the new rules.

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